Protecting it All: Dark Romantic Suspense (Punishment Pit Book 6)

by Livia Grant

  Dylan reached out to gently stroke her arm. The action was such a stark contrast to her memories in Jake's horror house earlier that week. She couldn't stop trembling. When she looked up, the three men were watching her carefully.

  "He's never going to leave me alone, is he?" she choked out.

  Lukus answered, the pity in his voice clear. "I'm afraid not. That's why we need to put him behind bars."

  She stepped away from the men, turning her back to them so they couldn't see the tears coming to her eyes. She wrapped her arms around her waist, hugging herself as she thought.

  She had messed up so many times. She should have listened to her internal reservations and steered clear of Jake. She shouldn't have taken the journal. She should have gone to the police right after he'd raped her; while they could still collect evidence.

  I should have packed the car and driven Connor and me away from this place yesterday morning.

  Fear for Connor's safety warred with her own promise to herself to try and prevent any other women from suffering the way she had at the hands of Jake Davenport. Alone, she knew she had no clue how to battle the evil that was Jake. Could these three alpha men help her? Dare she trust them?

  The quiet of the room was broken by the sound of the near-by connector door linking her apartment to Rosa's cracking open. In unison, the three men whipped out concealed handguns, pointing them at the unexpected movement as if Jake Davenport were about to stroll through the door.

  Hannah turned on them, holding her arms out wide as if she could somehow stop their bullets with her petite body. "NO! Put your guns away! Right now!"

  The men refused to lower their weapons until Connor's childish voice called for her. "Mommy!"

  Hannah was watching Dylan and saw the surprise register in his grey eyes as Connor ran up from behind her to throw his three-year-old arms around her legs, clinging to her, afraid of the big bad men with guns pointed at his mommy. All three guns were lowered to the floor.

  Hannah heard Mama Rosa's wheelchair approaching from behind. "I have my cell phone. I'm calling 9-1-1 in exactly thirty seconds if you aren't out of here." Her accent may have been thick, but the men understood.

  With the emergency diffused, Hannah turned, pulling Connor up into her arms where he clung to her like a monkey. "It's okay, Rosa. These are actually the good guys. I've been having some trouble with a guy at work, and these men are trying to help me get him out of my life."

  Rosa looked each of the men up and down suspiciously before visibly relaxing. She didn't let them off the hook, though. "Where I come from, the good guys come in through the front door and not the side window," she scolded.

  Lukus answered sheepishly. "Yes, ma'am."

  Hannah snuggled against Connor to hide her smile at the sight of the man who was obviously used to being in charge looking contrite. Her eyes met Dylan's as his own grin lit up his face. She felt the flush in her cheeks under his scrutiny, liking how he made her feel safe when he was around.

  Too bad safety was an illusion.

  Lukus took charge. "We didn't know you had a son. This complicates things."

  Hannah couldn't stop her snarky reply. "You think? I can't let anything hurt Connor."

  "Where's Connor's father?" It was Dylan probing this time.

  A familiar panic rose in her at that question. "That's none of your damn business. He's not in our lives anymore." She hadn't meant to bite his head off. How could he know Connor's parentage was a very difficult topic?

  "Whoa. Let's all stay calm." Ironically, it was Dylan's muscular brother who tried to defuse the situation. He leapt into motion, surprising everyone in the room when he moved forward slowly to reach his hands out to Connor. "Well hello there, young man. My name is Derek. How would you like to go with me next door to your neighbor's so your mommy can talk with my friends?"

  Connor clung to her harder, afraid of the hulk of a man. He stood over a foot taller than her, and Hannah had to force herself to look up into Derek's eyes. She saw an odd gentleness there she hadn't expected from a man with visible tattoos and rippled muscles. It was strange, but in that moment she knew the safest place in the world for Connor was with this guy.

  "It's okay, baby. These are mommy's friends. You don't need to be afraid of them," she whispered to her son.

  When Connor refused to relinquish his hold on his mom, Derek spoke to him gently. "I bet you didn't know that my wife is pregnant and I'm about to be a dad for the first time. I'm hoping we have a boy just like you, but I'm afraid I don't know much about being a dad. Do you think you could do me a big favor and show me your favorite toys so I know what to buy for my own son?"

  Hannah felt Connor wiggling so he could look at the big scary man holding his hands out. She could feel him relaxing slowly. "It's okay. Can you go with Derek and show him your toys over at Mama Rosa's?"

  She moved closer and Derek reached in to take Connor from her arms. He may not have kids of his own yet, but she suspected he was going to be a good father.

  Lukus waited until Derek, Connor and Rosa had returned next door, closing the connecting door behind them before he spoke. "Let's sit down at the table. We have a lot to talk about."

  Hannah let herself be led to the small round table where she and Connor ate their meals. Dylan was a gentleman and pulled her chair out for her, taking the one closest to her for himself as his boss sat across the table.

  They sat in an awkward silence before Lukus took charge. "I know this will be hard for you, but I need you to tell me all you can about Jake Davenport. Have you been inside the warehouse? Do you have any evidence of illegal activity?"

  You mean like how he rapes the women who work for him?

  She couldn't get the words out. "I've never been inside the warehouse, no. I've only gone out with him once. On the way to the restaurant, we stopped by there and I waited in the car while he went inside for about fifteen minutes. I watched a lot of shady looking people going in and out. When I asked him about it, he said he'd be happy to share the details of what happens in there as soon as I agreed to work for him."

  Dylan interrupted. "And did you? Agree to work for him?"

  The memories from a few nights before were still fresh. Rage warred with fear, keeping her silent. The men waited patiently until she spoke quietly. "Jake doesn't take no for an answer."

  "What does that mean?" Dylan's voice was soft, but she could tell he wasn't going to settle for vague answers.

  Vulnerability had her lashing out at him. "What do you think it means? I knew I shouldn't have gone to his house, but like an idiot, he wooed me into thinking he had this lucrative job for me. He gave me gifts. Promised me a job in accounting like I've worked so hard to get."

  Lukus interjected next. "Only, he didn't explain the small print of what he expected from his employees until it was too late, did he?"

  She looked away from the two dominant men. Talking about what had happened to her was hard enough. With two men she barely knew, it felt impossible. The feel of Dylan taking her hand under the table made her jump. He squeezed her hand supportively, twining their fingers together in a way that felt comforting.

  She closed her eyes, unable to look at them as she told her story. "His house is a fortress. Once he gets you inside, you are trapped there until he decides to let you out." She hesitated, letting the tears seep between her closed lids to streak down her cheeks. "He forced me to get naked first before he..." She stopped to gulp for a breath, "Before he tied me down across his desk and whipped me with his belt and a wooden paddle until I was screaming. Nothing I said or did would make him stop. In fact, the more I struggled, the more he seemed to like it."

  Dylan's hand was squeezing hers so hard it had begun to hurt. She didn't miss his whispered, "I'm gonna kill the motherfucker dead." She didn't doubt him for a second, and that made her strangely happy.

  She continued her story. "He wasn't done. The sicko then led me to a desk across the office and made me..." She couldn't describe the h
umiliation of sitting on the dildo stool. "He tied me to the desk and made me work on entering data into an encrypted program from a leather journal. It was coded and I couldn't figure out what the data meant, but I'm sure it had sales and customer information that he wanted to keep secret."

  "How long did that go on?"

  "An hour or two. He made a bunch of phone calls while I worked. Some people he schmoozed as if he was trying to sell them something, but they spoke in code words. Others he yelled at. Like they had screwed something up."

  Lukus had to keep prodding her to continue. "Then what happened?"

  She finally opened her eyes, somehow needing to watch Dylan's reaction. "Then he pinned me over the desk and raped me." She watched his eyes cloud over with rage.

  Dylan was on his feet. "God damn it! I fucking told you, Mitchell! I was sitting outside in my car like a damn moron while he was inside raping her! I should have broken in. I should have called the police. I should have—"

  "Sit down, Dylan." His boss's voice was calm... too calm.

  "Fuck you. I quit. I'm packing up Hannah and Connor and I'm taking them away from here, and you can't stop me."

  The vehemence of his rage on her behalf surprised Hannah. Instead of being scared, she felt comforted to know he was so committed to protecting her and Connor. She reached out to take his hand again. When he looked down at her, she saw his anguish that he'd failed her.

  "It's okay, Dylan. I was an idiot to go there with him. You'd tried to warn me."

  "Are you kidding me? Don't you dare act like any part of this was your fault. I know what happens in that warehouse. I know what he's capable of."

  Curiosity prompted her to press them. "What does go on in the warehouse?"

  Lukus answered. "He's running several legal online sex rooms and phone lines. They are pretty hardcore, stretching the boundaries of consent, but as best we can tell, they aren't illegal. I have reason to believe those are just a front to cover his illegal business. My tech guru is tracing the money, but Davenport is smart. We need help from the inside to find the kind of dirt we need."

  Something in the way he said the word 'inside' alarmed Hannah. "Why don't you just go to the police? I mean, if he is threatening your fiancée, they should arrest him, right?"

  "If only it were that easy. He's good at covering his tracks and even better at finding people's weak spots and capitalizing on it. I'm assuming he has something on you that kept you from going to the police yourself?"

  She wilted under Lukus's stare and decided to tell the truth. "I haven't had very good luck with going to the police in the past. I decided it would be easier to just disappear." She looked up at Dylan. "I'd take you up on your offer to help me and Connor get away from here if you were serious."

  Before Dylan could answer, Lukus interjected again. "There is nowhere you can go where he can't find you if he wants to. Do you want to look over your shoulder for the rest of your life? Be afraid to let Connor play outside, for fear Davenport will find you? No. The only way to be free of him is to put him behind bars or, better yet, six feet under. Now think, what else do you remember?"

  Her heart pounded in her chest as she debated her next move. Her decision made, Hannah stood and crossed to her freezer, reaching in to remove the leather journal she had nabbed from Jake's home office. She took it out of the frosty plastic bag and placed it in front of Lukus before returning to her seat.

  The three of them sat frozen, the men both staring at her, waiting for an explanation she didn't want to give.

  "I was an idiot," she said at length. "That's the journal he had me translating data from when I was at his house. I wasn't thinking when I took it. Of course, he knows I have it. He'll never leave me alone until he gets it back, and since I've experienced how he punished me for doing nothing wrong, I kinda want to avoid seeing how he decides to punish me for stealing that from his house."

  Lukus's whistle confirmed what an idiot she was, right up until he spoke. “First, don’t call yourself an idiot again. Davenport is evil, but he’s smart as hell. We’re all doing what we can to get him neutralized and this might turn out to be the big break we need.”

  While Lukus reached to open the journal, Dylan moved into action. "Do you have any luggage? How about boxes? I'll help you pack," he said.

  Hannah sat rooted to her chair, watching Lukus leaf through the pages of the book quickly before glancing up at her. "You have any ideas on the coding system?"

  "A few. I think the two letter codes are locations, and the numbers represent people or products. The lengths he is going to keep the information private alone tells me it's something illegal. At first, I thought it might be drugs."

  Lukus calmly asked, "What made you think that?"

  She hesitated, looking up at an agitated Dylan. "Because he drugged me when I was at his house."

  Dylan was pacing around the small apartment like a caged animal searching for his prey, while Lukus pressed her calmly in contrast. "Did you lose consciousness?"

  "Unfortunately, no. It made me lethargic. Like I was seeing through a tunnel. My ears rang, and..." She had to look away from Dylan as she finished her sentence. "It was like an aphrodisiac. My brain hated what was happening, but it was like I couldn't control my body."

  "Motherfucker. Dead. I want him stone-cold dead," Dylan snarled.

  "Dylan, sit down and take a deep breath. We're going to get him. I promise you." Lukus was eerily calm. Hannah was tempted to believe his promise. He waited for Dylan to sit before he continued. "I'm going to take this with me and get photos of each page over to my tech guru to see what he can put together with the information inside. In the meantime, I don't think either of you is going to like what I'm about to ask you to do. If I thought there was any other way to proceed, I'd take it, but we're running out of options."

  Hannah may not have known the man at all, but she could see regret in his eyes as he continued. "We need to get inside that warehouse, Hannah. We've talked to several employees and haven't been able to find anyone who knows anything about what is going on. You're our best chance."

  Dylan was back on his feet, this time up in Lukus's face. "Are you nuts? You want to send Hannah inside that house of pain? Alone?"

  She was shaking at the thought of even seeing Jake again, let alone going inside his lair, where she would once again be at his mercy. "You can have the journal. Use it, but that's all I can do. You can't ask me to see him again," she pleaded.

  Before Lukus could reply, her cell phone was ringing inside her purse on the kitchen counter. It was Mia's ringtone. She was about to let it roll to voicemail until the memory of Jake leaving the shop with Lucy flooded back to her. "Damn. I need to get that."

  She crossed to her purse and answered the call. "Hey Mia." A pang of regret hit her as she realized she was going to be leaving her life behind, including her friendship with Mia. Then her regret took a back seat as Mia cried through the phone.

  "Lucy is in so much trouble, Hannah!"

  With dread, she asked the question she already suspected the answer to. "What has he done?"

  "I'm forwarding the video to you now. God, I hate to even ask you this, but he says he's going to hurt her if you don't give him back something you have of his. Please tell me you know what he's talking about and can give it to him?" Mia begged.

  Hannah closed her eyes as she felt the blood pounding through her veins. Her ears were ringing and she looked down at her smartphone as it dinged the arrival of the video. Sensing something was happening, Lukus and Dylan crowded around behind her to look down at her phone.

  The screen was filled with the sight of a crying Lucy, looking terrified. Davenport was smart. He couldn't be seen or heard, but his message still came through loud and clear through a hysterically sobbing Lucy. Her mascara had run, her hair was messed up. Only the straps of her bra were visible, indicating she had been partially stripped. Through her tears, they caught her message.

  "Mia... you have to talk to Hannah. I'm
not sure where I am, but I know this. If Hannah doesn't give back what she stole, I'm going to pay the price." Lucy glanced to one side, hesitating as if she were looking at Jake for instructions before continuing. "She only has a few hours. If she doesn't call her boss tonight, we are all going to be in a lot of trouble. Please, Mia. Talk to her. Convince her to do the right thing."

  The video ended abruptly.

  "Damn him. Once again, he was careful. She doesn't mention his name. She doesn't give specifics of location," Lukus said.

  Mia was crying. "I know she's a pain, but she's my sister. I'd never ask you—"

  Hannah cut her off. "It's okay, Mia. I understand. I've gotta go." She pressed 'end' on the call before her friend could hear her crying. It hurt that Mia was choosing her sister's safety over her own.

  Just once, it would have been nice to be first on someone's priority list.

  That was when she looked up to see Dylan was back on his feet, starting to pile items he thought she might want to take near her purse on the counter. Lukus, on the other hand, sat in the seat next to her and just stared at her, letting her mull over the video they'd just seen.

  She pressed him for answers. "What is he doing to women in the warehouse?"

  "Do you really want to know?"

  "Not really, but I think if you want me to go inside, I have the right to know."

  Dylan stopped to stare at them. "You are not going inside there, Hannah. I'm not going to let you. There has to be another way."

  Lukus looked up at Dylan, finally showing his anger. "Do you honestly think I'd send an innocent woman in there if I thought there was another way?"

  "This is bullshit. You'd never let Tiffany or Brianna go inside there. Derek would never let Rachel near that lunatic. So why is it okay to send Hannah in?"

  Hannah could tell Lukus was struggling to hold a tight rein on his emotions as he replied. "I didn't put Hannah in danger. She was already in danger. And she made her situation worse by choosing to take the journal. Like it or not, she is already a target. All I'm trying to do is capitalize on it."